Insurance agents and brokers play a significant role in access, finance, and delivery of health insurance by acting as the consumer's agent, providing specialized services to help consumers navigate the complexities of insurance products. In exchange, they receive commissions from the insurer. Little is known about the relationship between the structure of the agent/broker market and access, affordability and generosity of insurance. Economic theory suggests that the agent/broker-client relationship may be flawed. Our research aims to investigate the role of agents and brokers in the health insurance decisions of small businesses, a sector that is particularly dependent on agents/brokers, and at the same time vulnerable to potential problems regarding health insurance financing. Our focus is whether the structure of the health insurance market, with agents and brokers acting as intermediaries, could lead to information problems and inefficiencies for small firms who significantly rely on these intermediaries. We will investigate whether the structure of the market for health insurance agents and brokers is associated with a broad set of outcomes related to shopping and offering of coverage, as well as generosity and types of coverage offered, and the small business response to high deductible plans and health savings accounts. Small firms have historically reported problems with the availability and affordability of health insurance and they heavily rely on agents and brokers for purchasing health insurance and for consulting. Our findings will improve our understanding of the barriers small businesses face in accessing and offering health insurance and will inform policy on the need for improving competition in the market for agents and brokers. Moreover, our research will inform design of legislation and health care reform. National or state reform initiatives can be implemented in various ways to enhance the involvement of agents and brokers in health insurance purchasing decisions, or to bypass them all together. It is plausible that employers would significantly benefit from access to brokers and agents who would educate and advise them on the reform provisions. On the other hand, if the agency relation between agents/brokers and employers is seriously broken, health care reform initiatives would benefit from rethinking the role of agents and brokers or reforming that market so that it functions more competitively. In either case, proceeding with a health insurance reform agenda without recognizing the key role of agents and brokers would be a mistake.